So the blog is and has always been like a historical log for
the children and I try to include both the good and bad things that happen in
life. So I think it is only fair that I add a blog regarding Coronavirus
(COVID-19) which is what 2020 will forever be remembered for and will possible
have a significant impact on all of our lives for the remainder of the year.
So what is Coronavirus?
Basically the coronavirus (Covid-19) is a fast spreading
virus which to date has infected more than 204,200 people with over 8,200
deaths recorded - including 71 people in the UK. The virus is believed to have
started in China in a "wet market" in Wuhan which sold both dead and
live animals including fish and birds. The animal source of the latest outbreak
has not yet been identified, but the original host is thought to be bats. Bats
were not sold at the Wuhan market but may have infected live chickens or other
animals sold there.
Coronovirus itself has been known about for many years and
is a group if virus’s that cause disease in animals, the difference with
Covid-19 is that it has now made the jump to humans. The new strain of
Coronavirus appears very dangerous for humans (especially the elderly) - so
far, around 20 per cent of confirmed cases have been classed as severe or
critical, around 15 to 20 per cent of hospital cases have been classed as
"severe" and the current death rate varies between 0.7 per cent and
3.4 per cent depending on the location and, crucially, access to good hospital
care.
So how has the Coronavirus started to affect our daily
lives?
Well to start with I have been made to self-isolate and work
from home for 2 weeks and pretty much all social gatherings, after schools
clubs, football fixtures, concerts etc have been cancelled. As the severity increases
day after day in the UK it appears only a matter of days before we are all on a
legal imposed lock down unless you are front line services. The fear of this
happening has caused wide spread panic buying in the supermarkets leaving many
empty shelves. Weirdly the thing people are bulk buying the most is toilet
paper and hand cleaning gel. The hand gel is understandable as hygiene has
become a major part of the global containment for the virus, but the toilet
roll is just crazy. This week we could not organise our normal shopping
delivery as all home delivery has stopped, so Tina tried doing our normal
weekly shop the old way yesterday (walking up and down aisles) and ended up
spending £30 more and buying probably half the stuff we usually get. The biggest
problem we had was no eggs or potatoes.
Slightly off topic but several years ago I built Tina a
fitted wardrobe with sliding doors in our bedroom as I was fed up with her not
having enough space and leaving a pile of clothes constantly on the floor.
Despite my efforts she still has a big pile of clothes on the bedroom floor as
she fills a section of the wardrobe with food and cleaning products when you
get BOGOF deals etc. Me and the kids often take the mickey out of her secret
stash and call it “Tina Express (instead of Tesco Express)”. So whenever we run
out of anything it home, the first question you ask is, “Is there any in Tina
Express?”. Now with the Coronavirus pandemic, the threat of a lockdown and the
lack of available food in the supermarkets – we have now realised that maybe
Tina had a point with her secret stash and “Tina Express” may be our saving
grace!
Anyway the government have imposed restrictions on any
non-essential travel or contact with other people, small businesses are
panicking and some airlines have already gone out of business. Most
international borders have been closed to travelling anywhere is a complete no,
no at the moment. This brings great concern to us as we had a family holiday
booked for the summer holidays going to a lovely resort in Bulgaria.
Fortunately we have only paid a small deposit with the next big payment due in
April, however the way things currently are I very much doubt this trip will go
head.
Joshua’s school will now be closing for all of Year 7, 8 and
9 effective tomorrow due to available resources with government restrictions on
the number of people in specific locations. So what resources the school does
have available are being used on the older children that are preparing for
their GSCE’s etc. So as of tomorrow we now have to start planning childcare and
out of school learning for Joshua (and I suspect Holly and Brandon will follow
very soon after). Fingers crossed the school(s) will send home plenty of work
for them to do.
We won’t know for sure whether this is a storm in a tea cup
or a major humanitarian issue that will go down in the history books forever. I
guess only time will tell and hopefully in 3 or 4 months’ time we can look back
on all of this and hope it was all an overreaction. Until then the football
season is effectively over, cinemas and restaurant’s closed and the streets
look like ghost towns as everyone remains at home.
Joshua getting creative at home and making his own face mask from paper and elastic bands. |
Meet the secret stash that is "Tina Express"! |
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